News1 min ago
Good News About Ukip
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Rod Liddle, in the Sunday Times, reports that UKIP is now using psychometric testing of its candidates. This is to ensure that they have candidates that conform to some standard. Many have failed to pass, though you'll be pleased to know the man who made famous reference to 'Bongo Bongo Land' did.
Is the testing good news?. We'll miss all, or most, of the eccentricity of such as Anne-Marie Crampton, council candidate in East Sussex, who said World War II and the Holocaust were all the fault of the Jews or Geoffrey Clark who wanted compulsory abortion of foetuses with spina bifida and Down's syndrome. The party will be full of boring stereotypical politicians.
Is the testing good news?. We'll miss all, or most, of the eccentricity of such as Anne-Marie Crampton, council candidate in East Sussex, who said World War II and the Holocaust were all the fault of the Jews or Geoffrey Clark who wanted compulsory abortion of foetuses with spina bifida and Down's syndrome. The party will be full of boring stereotypical politicians.
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Poor old Liddle, the man who gave us "The Trouble with Atheism" documentary. He's still putting it around a bit (I mean the writing): he wrote an article for the Spectator a couple of weeks ago, as did Roger Scruton who wrote an embarrassingly Pseuds' Corner article in which he praised Barenboim's Ring Cycle. I nearly did a cut and paste FAO Khandro, Glad I didn't as he's subsequently revealed himself as a man with a down on sentimentality, so that's Wagner out, innit? Back to the OP. My infant school teacher Miss Birch (no kidding!) did have me sent to a child psychologist on account of I was backward (no comments, please). According to most of my friends most of my life I'm ideal UKIP material. I wonder if these two things are in any way related..
What? Wagner sentimental!!
'People who truly appreciate great music, i.e. the Wagnerians would say Verdi, after all, is just dumbed-down trash. Wagner’s music is on an altogether higher, more intellectual, more serious stratosphere. You hum Verdi; you think Wagner. Forget the sentimental, hot, easy southern tunes of Italy; here is opera, and music, at its epic, cerebral, definitive height.
To know the Ring Cycle is to be fully immersed in opera at its highest moment of technical brilliance and compositional originality, the bridging point between the conventional works of the 19th century and the 20th century avant-garde. To understand and appreciate Wagner’s music is not to forgive his political views, but to cast them aside in the face of unconditional, irresistible, unassailable genius.' innit?
Back, I say; back behind the sofa, and take your pea-shooter with you. :-)
With apologies to Fred.
'People who truly appreciate great music, i.e. the Wagnerians would say Verdi, after all, is just dumbed-down trash. Wagner’s music is on an altogether higher, more intellectual, more serious stratosphere. You hum Verdi; you think Wagner. Forget the sentimental, hot, easy southern tunes of Italy; here is opera, and music, at its epic, cerebral, definitive height.
To know the Ring Cycle is to be fully immersed in opera at its highest moment of technical brilliance and compositional originality, the bridging point between the conventional works of the 19th century and the 20th century avant-garde. To understand and appreciate Wagner’s music is not to forgive his political views, but to cast them aside in the face of unconditional, irresistible, unassailable genius.' innit?
Back, I say; back behind the sofa, and take your pea-shooter with you. :-)
With apologies to Fred.
Khandro, no apology needed. Wagner is up there with lieder as my least favourite music or singing. And there's an absurd storyline in Wagner's Ring (my favourite bit is when a dwarf is being beaten up at the beginning of it, and if I find that the best bit, you can guess what the rest is like) and there's far too much incest for my liking. That Wagner himself is unpleasant in his views is immaterial
Khandro...with you about Wagner. I have seen the Ring only once in its entirety, at Covent Garden in the late 1980's. I was lucky to get a ticket for Siegfried at Longborough 2 years ago but couldn't afford the complete cycle this year.
I think all this talk of Wagner's anti-Semitism is a load of guff. Most people within Europe were anti-Semitic at the time. It doesn't excuse the discrimination of course but we judge historic events with present-day sentiments at our peril. Wagner was hardly unique in his views. Music should be for listening to, not debating the political views of the composer.
I think all this talk of Wagner's anti-Semitism is a load of guff. Most people within Europe were anti-Semitic at the time. It doesn't excuse the discrimination of course but we judge historic events with present-day sentiments at our peril. Wagner was hardly unique in his views. Music should be for listening to, not debating the political views of the composer.
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